Red against Blue
by riah alice drake
Summary: (TRIGGER WARNING/ SPOILERS: This will start with a bar shooting scene and subsequent gunshot inflicted wounded scene so if you continue to read please be aware of that. This will be the set up for triggering the return of memories from the haze of the last 'sleeping' curse.) Or another of my AUs about how Curious Archer gets their memories back
1. Chapter 1

(_**TRIGGER WARNING/ SPOILERS:**_ This will start with a bar shooting scene and subsequent gunshot inflicted wounded scene so if you continue to read please be aware of that. This will be the set up for triggering the return of memories from the haze of the last 'sleeping' curse.)

_**Red Against Blue**_

The first thing to comes into her head is that the bar was closed meaning that only herself, her Mom, Roni, and Tilly were hanging around counting stock and getting the place ready for the following day.

She and Tilly sitting at the bar talking about everything and nothing while they made a game out of who could whip up the most glasses. Her Mom and Roni behind the bar giggling at their playfulness while taking stock of what they needed to order and counting the last of the receipts from the night before.

The second thing she thought about was how even when the first shots rang out, she'd acted on impulse. If only she'd been fast enough considering who else was doing the same thing.

Margot grunts in surprise at Tilly's hard fireman's lifting throw tossing her over to the covering safety behind the bar making Margot hit the ground with a groan of pain signaling that her arm would most likely be bruised come morning. Somehow, she managed to land beside and not on top of her Mom and Aunt who'd ducked down when the first round of firing started.

Her ears ringing from the sound of the shots making it harder to make out anything the other two are saying to her as she struggles to her feet amid the broken bottles and spilled liquor seeing the shooter running passed the front window with Rogers and Weaver both hot on his heels.

From what Margot can tell as she rounds the bar on shaking legs is the detectives had been on their way over for a lunch break and had witnessed the whole thing.

It's not until she notices Tilly that she hears it. A scream to end all screams. A scream as if someone just had their soul ripped out of them right before their eyes but can't tell if it's her own, her aunts, or her mother's but someones.

Why shouldn't she scream. After all, she was going to lose the love of her life the same way she lost her father.

A selfless act to protect the woman they loved.

In this world, a bullet to the stomach can be just as damning as being struck with a soul-destroying God killing crystal.

A flickering of images like an old projection movie player flickers behind her eyes as she makes this connection the longer her unfocused eyes zero in on the growing stain on the front of her girlfriend's shirt.

Red. There was red on her shirt. There shouldn't be red on her shirt only blue on her shirt.

_A glint of sunlight reflecting off some kind of mirror and a flash of something red in the greenery beyond the half circle of Nook, Henry, Ella, her mother and Regina while the pirate makes faces at baby Lucy._

_A Spy. There was a spy lurking just outside her camp_

_A voice she barely remembers as her father's humming a song to her to get her to sleep nestled in the safety of his arms._

_The look of wonder on her Tower Girl's face when she discovered the 'magic' of a smartphone._

_Her aunt and her Mother using Emma's dream catchers to show her memories of not only who her father was but how he had nobly died when she was thirteen._

_The trolls smiling face as it turns to stone under Alice's touch_

_The feel of Alice's lips on her own one last time as she clings onto her Tower Girl for all she's worth before the curse rips them apart_

Tilly reaches out toward the trembling bartender her hands stained that wet shade of red continuing to grow across her stomach as her legs give out.

No, she can't fall. She can't leave her like her father left her.

Robin catches her cradling Alice against her chest while her love's breathing becomes much shallower.

Somewhere close Regina was on the phone calling for an ambulance. Her mother races into the back for the med kit.

"Stay with me baby." Robin begs not knowing if Alice has been woken like she had the longer she holds her trying both to keep the wet red stain inside her girlfriend's body where it belonged while keeping her true love awake long enough so the paramedics can help her better when they arrived.

"Come on Tils stay with me…please" her voice cracks. She was losing too much blood. As a trained hunter Robin knows this. A hit this precise was intended not to injure but to kill.

Her mother back at her side pressing bandages and whatever else she could find against Alice's stomach to hold off the bleeding. She like Robin talking to her trying to keep her awake.

Alice's blood-stained hand against her cheek making her look up into those blue eyes she loved so dearly. Trust her love to have that lopsided smile of her while bleeding out on her Aunt Regina's barroom floor. "Hey, you."

They can hear the sirens of the ambulance "Just hang on a little longer baby, please. Just hand on." Robin begs tilting her head enough to both lean into the hand at her cheek and to press her lips against it at the same time.

Regina is waiting by the door tears in her eyes at not only what was happening in the here and now but for the reminder of how she herself had lost her own true love.

The sirens are louder now screeching down the road toward them. God, she was losing too much blood.

Alice's hand tapping against Robin's cheek wanting her to look at her again. Robin leans in this time not wanting her mother to hear whatever it was her Alice wanted to tell her.

"I love you….Nobin."

Her voice is so low so shallow.

"I love you too Tow…" she starts to say fresh tears sliding down her cheeks as she pulls Alice's hand up to her lips.

"We'll take it from here." One of the paramedics. 'Toby' his name badge says as he and his partner move in pushing Robin away from the love of her life.

She falls against her mother her vision burry behind Margot's glasses, but her eyes never leave Alice. Zelena's arms close around her shaking shoulders when it became too much to watch Alice grow paler by the second.

"Pulse still strong we need to move. Come on get her up." Toby instructs counting off quickly so he and his partner lift Alice onto the gurney.

Regina holding the door open as they wheeled her out with Robin and Zelena close behind them the mother still supporting her daughter on every shaking step.

"That's her fiancée." Regina says speaking for the first time since making the phone call when 'the partner' tries to keep Robin from climbing into the back van after him while Toby goes toward the driver's door once Alice had been moved.

"We'll be right behind you monkey." Zelena promises as the doors here closed and the sirens turned on again as the van takes off down the road toward the closest hospital.


	2. Chapter 2

She'd just gotten back from a little raid of the vending machine not really because she was hungry more for something to do beyond worrying about what was happening to the woman she loved when she spots him.

Rogers was with his head down and his right leg bouncing from anxiety so like his daughter's. Tilly's backpack the shoulder straps stained with blotchy drops of drying blood resting against the chair between his legs. His remaining hand wrapped in bandages laying against his lap while his prosthetic rested against the arm of the chair.

She'd find out later that he'd driven the wrong fist into the unforgiving concrete wall down in the parking garage once they brought the shooter in. Some kid whose prints hadn't been in the system before and who looked so out of it the cop was surprised he even remembered how to pull the trigger on the weapon let alone how he'd managed to stay standing long enough to get to the bar in the first place.

He kept saying the trees told him to do it. The trees wanted the blonde-haired hunter gone so the lost daughter could come back to them. He was only doing what the trees wanted him to do as Weaver had drug him into the elevator giving Rogers time to calm down enough for him to do his job.

Of course, he was setting up for insanity early rather than admit what drugs he'd mixed to give him his latest high or give a more acceptable reason for shooting an innocent young woman like Tilly.

He'd lost his temper again at his locker after Weaver had gotten a little too curt in suggesting he take his break after pulling him out in the middle of his interrogation. Rogers could see the older man was just as upset as he was about what was going on but unlike him his partner held his darker side in better check and a third time he'd let his fist fly against the stone of the closest wall this time in his own apartment as he swung by to collect a few overnight things for the woman he'd come to see as a surrogate daughter.

"You look as good as I feel."

The speaker's body dropped into the seat beside him her head moving to rest against his shoulder. Not that he minded one bit as he mechanically accepted the second pack of trail mix his roommate's girlfriend offered. He'd skipped his lunch break in favor of getting his hand looked at after arriving at the hospital. Weaver had called earlier about both taking the rest of the day, so he didn't have to worry about going back. Not that he would have. Right now, Tilly was far more important.

"How's your hand?" Margot asks without lifting her head from his shoulder her voice just audible enough for him to hear her after several long beats of quiet while the hospital bustles around them.

"Stings but nothing I can't handle." He answers as the fingers of his taped hand brush once again along the fluffy rabbit toy he'd found while packing up some of Tilly's clothes for her stay. He didn't know why but just holding it claimed him. "How's yours?" They both knew the banter was partly to keep from worrying over what was going on down the hall.

"She's going to be alright I can feel it." Margot tells him resting a hand against her chest rather than answer his question. "Aye, she is quite the survivor." he agrees moving enough to shed his jacket draping it across her shoulders when he felt her shivering in the chill of the waiting room. "Like someone else I know." She whispers giving him a shy grateful smile at the gesture. He doesn't ask who she's talking about whilst she once again rested her head against his shoulder.

They lapsed back into silence after that with Robin drifting into something resembling sleep by the time her mother and aunt had exited the elevator minutes later with a soft explanation of "Traffic was horrible." with Lucy and Henry joining them shortly after that.

"Don't," Rogers growled when Zelena reached out toward her sleeping daughter when the younger woman started shivering again when her borrowed jacket slipped from her shoulders the hand not wrapped in white surgical tap sliding around Robin's shoulders replacing the jacket himself. "Sorry lass." He whispers apologetically when the jostling wakes Robin.

"'s okay." She shrugs off enjoying seeing more of the pirate's fatherly side as she sits up. "Hi mom." She adds in a little yawn for the moment pushing away her annoyance at just what had allowed her Mother and Aunt and by the look of it Rumple to regain their memories while she'd been left walking around under the haze of Margot West. First, she needed to be sure Alice was alright then they could handle that part of the fall out together.

"Drew and Remy can handle things just fine without us." "Right now, this is more important than food…Hey Luc. Thanks for bringing her Henry." The businesswomen's curt replies at Robin's surprise when not only Jacinda but Sabine step out of the elevator next brings a watery smile from both Robin and Lucy as the ten-year-old leans against her mother's side while keeping ahold of Henry's hand as Sabine takes a seat across from them.

Rogers moves with her when Robin gets up to stretch his protective side earning another of the archer's softer smiles. "How about you two head to the cafeteria. We'll have someone get you if anything changes." Regina offers when Hook's stomach grumbles. Lucy jumps up as well noticing the subtle change in Robin's posture the others seem to have missed as she pulls her arms into Rogers's jacket. "I'll come too if that's alright." She hopes.

"Sure kid. We'll get you some Jell-O." Robin agrees sending a wink the younger girls way quietly conforming her suspicions in the act as she slides Margot's glasses higher up her nose. "But let's go before Tils comes for our heads for letting her roommate starve himself."

That at least catches Regina's attention but the other three walk away before she can do more than open her mouth despite nothing coming out of it.


	3. Chapter 3

She was sure she was somehow back at the bar, but that wasn't right she knew from her jumbled mix of her own and Tilly's memories that she'd been moved to a hospital. Yet here she was sitting at a table in a bar with her eyes closed listening to the sounds of a low crackling fire behind her.

"Hot chocolate for the lady."

Alice starts at the voice. It hadn't been the one she'd been hoping to hear so soon after waking up from being hit in the stomach by a would-be hitman's bullet. Seeing as the intended target had been her girlfriend the realm jumper wasn't about to let Margot take that hit.

"I'm sorry for startling you." The warm timber apologizes "But I thought this would be a better use of your time whilst those new realm doctors patch you up."

That gets Alice's attention making her crack her eyes open enough to see just where she'd ended up. She immediately bites down on the inside of her cheek to stop her groan. The bar where she both started to fall for and been betrayed by the woman that would turn out to be her true love.

"Don't worry you are not dead just in a kind of limbo." Her companion explains his voice coming from somewhere over by the bar obviously taking her groan to mean something else. "I wanted a more neutral ground for our talk and what's more neutral than a tavern?" He jokes as he strides over to her table offering her one of the two drinks he'd brought.

It's when she reaches to take it that she spots the tattoo half hidden by the man rolled up shirt sleeve. Her eyes snap to his as the realization of who he was as he takes a seat across from her. How could she not when his eyes are the same color as his daughter's?

"Robin Locksley at your service." His smile also matches his daughter's perfectly, but it doesn't have the same effect on her heart rate as when _her_ Robin flashes it.

"Alice Jones." Alice answers extending her other hand in greeting. He takes it his tattoo once again on display in the warm glow of the firelight as they shake hands. "Good to finally meet you, Alice Jones." The elder Robin nodes releasing her hand taking the seat across from her. "Now how about you tell me about my daughter." He insists wrapping his hands around his as of yet untouched drink.

Of all the things she'd expected him to say that hadn't be high on the list. She covers her surprise by bringing her drink to her lips. How he knew just how she likes her cocoa was a mystery, but she is grateful for the comfort in it none the less. "You're not going to give me the talk?"

The legend chuckles over the rim of his mug waiting until he'd taken a sip of his own drink "I will." The father nodes "If we still have time after you tell me about my little girl." He adds with a stern glance as he hides a smile behind the rim of his own mug. "What do you like about her." he coaxes after a long drink.

"She can be a brat at times." Alice answers at once in a laugh thinking of how they'd first met and the following talk they'd had right outside the front door of the tavern. "but she's also incredibly loyal and at times foolishly brave," she lists. "and when she kisses me…." Alice sighs forgetting for a moment who she's talking to as her eyes close remembering the feel of her girlfriend's warm lips against her own.

The father's pointed throat-clearing drags her out of those kinds of thoughts blushing a deep crimson in embarrassment.

"A love like that is nothing to be ashamed of." Robin Sr. defends clinking his mug with Alice's forgotten one "Just seeing as it also concerns my daughter…let's keep it out of shadowy corners."

Alice nodes blushing an if possible, even deeper red than before gulping down her drink not even pausing to realize in the moment he'd gotten her taste just right without needing to ask how she took her cocoa.

"She has your eyes…." Alice tells him steering the conversation back into less personal territory. "and your name."

That made the elder Robin pause setting his drink down with a skeptical look in his face "Zelena actually went along with that idea?" Alice nodes remembering when the mother herself had told her about the day she finally christened her daughter. "It was her idea. She said the name just fit. You gave your life for her nothing was more honorable than that." Alice chose not to tell him that his daughter had been given her name over his grave.

The father smiles at that yet is didn't quite mask the sadness in his eyes. "A legacy like mine…"

"Your legacy is part of what brought Nobin and I together sir." Alice counters "All she wants is to make you proud."

"Nobin?"

Alice drops her eyes nervous "She was the new Robin….." she explains he chuckles at that this time his happiness goes all the way to his eyes before he goes back to the previous topic. "Then when you get back tell her….tell her from me that she has already made me prouder than any father can be of his daughter. She's my little peanut. She, Roland and Regina are the most important three in my life. Nothing they do will ever make me disappointed in them."

"I'll tell her…." Alice nodes.

A strong yet gentle restraining hand closes around her wrist as something like recognition flickers across his face as a strange light outside the tavern windows glows in warning.

Alice's time in limbo was coming to an end.

"Just one last thing before you go."

Alice bites her lip already hearing the drowning beat of her own heartbeat against her ears but she nodes anyway willing herself to stay as Robin looks between her and the growing light outside the windows.

"You have to find something for me. Something I want my little girl to have…..for her wedding day…." The father says leaning forward when she nodes again not trusting her voice at the tears welling in his eyes as he whispers into her ear.


	4. Chapter 4

Despite the growing reach of the white-hot light surrounding them the warmth of a father's arms around her continued calming her fears while Alice chose to finish up the last few sips of her cocoa just for something to keep her hands busy not that it lasted long. "She's waiting for you, Alice." He reminds after carefully replacing the tinkered on the table beside them while she holds him tighter as if she could somehow bring him with her when the light became too much.

Her Robin needed him. She couldn't just leave him.

"My place is here Alice Jones. Yours is with my little girl." Her love's father whispers as he pulls away one last time to meet her eyes. She wished he hadn't. She couldn't stand seeing tears in those story gray eyes that were so like his daughter's "Remember what I asked and please. Take care of her…them."

Alice can only node her voice failing her as she holds the legend's gaze until the lights around them grew too bright. Ripping her away from what was for a few moments at least….peace.

The only good thing about the experience was that when she did claw her way back to a more aware state the warm embrace that had so comforted her seconds before was still around her fighting off the rest of her sadness about having to leave her love's father lingering in that tavern. Alice could still feel the cold sting of tears behind her closed eyes still taste the cocoa he'd made for her against her tongue reminding her that everything that had just happened was real. Yet now the calming crackle of the fire was replaced with a frantic beeping pulse that was anything but peaceful.

An uneasy feeling of something was wrong only increased than she felt that the left side of the bed she was laying on was dipped signaling another person was with her while she wakes.

"That cannot be comfortable."

It takes longer than she'd like for her to put a name with the voice as she listens to him moving farther into her 'sick room' enough that he takes a seat beside her bed.

"I'm serious you look like you'll fall off any second." He laughed but it was strained a hollow laugh not one of his normal ones that were full of genuine joy.

_Henry_

The body snuggled up along her side curls even closer as if proving the soft comment wrong bringing an even stronger wave of the hard biting mix of alcohol and the musky scent that could only be found in the deep forest invade her senses while Alice feels the shoulder closest to her shrug.

"I don't need to be comfortable." her bedmate answers finally managing to settle down in the sliver of the bed she'd been able to clam as her own.

That voice Alice had no trouble identifying.

_Robin_

Despite already being freed from the haze of the curse memories she'd recently remembered having ripped like water behind her closed eyes.

_"I'm kind of new here-names Robin."_

_"True love can win out over so much more."_

_"I saved your life the other day…makes you hard to forget."_

_"You're going to fall in love….Grow old with someone….live a normal life…free of towers." _

_"….You are going to have lots of adventures." _

_"Don't. Move. Spy"_

_"You have a funny way of looking at the world don't you Tower Girl?"_

_"-It won't ever be too much for me….no matter what kind of day it is."_

She was right. She and her Nobin had known one other. They'd know each other all along.

"You know that as soon as someone from the actual hospital staff comes in, you'll have to move right?" Henry chuckled knocking Alice back into the conversation going on in the world around her. All be it a kind of one-sided one seeing as Robin hadn't been up for talking much after those first few words.

Another shrug coupled with the soft feather-like brush of lips against the side of Alice's neck that soothed her racing heartbeat. "But I don't have to move just yet." Her archer shoots back her tone like Henry's tired and missing its normal happy underlayer.

Henry took a deep steadying breath before he speaks again. "Roni said the doctors are hopeful today."

Alice feels Robin node against her shoulder "They also said that yesterday. And the day before that."

Oh, how Alice wishes she could get the rest of her body to move. If she could just move or get her eyes to open at least then she could change the pained note in her love's voice.

"Come on I get that you're upset we all are." Alice wanted to hit him over the head for that. He was supposed to be calming her love not talking her up into even more of an upset state. "A shot that precise wasn't intended to wound but to kill. It's only been a few days. Give her time to bounce back."

As hard as she tried Alice couldn't get her tired body to move meaning she could do nothing accept listen as the pair continued to chat between themselves and maddeningly nothing they said gave her any hint as to whether or not Robin was herself again or if she was still trapped in the haze of Margot.

Not that Alice didn't have a soft spot for Robin's world-traveling cursed self, but she just wanted her archer back.

"Robin?"

Alice must have dozed off at some point during the soft-spoken conversation but she was as wide awake as she could be in a body that wouldn't fully cooperate with her at the whispered sound of her true love's real name coming from the direction of the doorway.

"Robin? Are you still here?"

_Lucy_

"What's up kid?"

How were the monitors not going mad from her pounding heart rate that was continuing to climb at the so casual question when she'd been expecting her love to have brushed off the name or at the very least to correct it with her cured one as Alice hears more than sees her love step out of the adjoining bathroom guessing she'd stepped away to clean herself up while Alice dozed on the bed.

"Alice still being stubborn I see." The ten-year-old sighs earning a humorless laugh in answer.

"That she is."

Alice gave a mantel huff at the back and forth. She wasn't stubborn she was just stuck in this new version of limbo. Able to hear and understand everything anyone in her room was saying but unable to talk back or even give some acknowledgment that was she even aware of what was going on around her.

Another prison. One she wasn't the least bit happy about being trapped in even if she was trapped with the love of her life by her bedside.

"Come on Luc….even if that could work on something as simple as waking my girlfriend up from a near point-blank GSW I can't risk it until we find some way to save your Dad."

At least Robin was back snuggling against Alice's side while Lucy let out a sad sigh before she answers, "Yeah I keep forgetting about that."

"Lucky you."

"But it might not. Remember what Grandma Regina said about great-grandma Snow and her Prince? They would kiss all the time during the curse, and it didn't break that one. Only Grandma Emma's kiss did."

"As much as I want to believe that I can't. I can't be that selfish Lucy. Henry's my cousin I can't take the chance of him dying just because I want Alice back." the blonde laying between them felt her heartbreak at the possible outcome for what would happen if this latest curse was broken.

If it really is the only thing keeping Henry alive….

"But you said yourself that Alice was already back right?" Lucy argued, "You said she called you that nickname she gave you when you first met back home before they brought her here."

"Tilly was in shock Luc—I-I can't be sure what I heard." Robin stammers second-guessing herself already.

Oh no. Her Robin was crying. She didn't want her crying.

Alice could tell that her archer was trying to hide her tears of course trying to maintain her 'cool' dynamic, but she also knows that nothing got passed the keen-eyed ten-year-old and if to prove her right a beat later she heard Lucy's soft "Oh Robin." As the younger girl hurried around the bed to offer the crying archer a hug.

Alice was sure she'd never find anything worse than her time trapped in that tower or the pain she felt after Gothel's curse separated her from her Papa.

Boy was she wrong. This was so much worse. Her Robin was crying, and she could do nothing but lay there and listen while someone else offered her comfort.

A tentative knock on the door to her room pauses the moment before Alice can spiral anymore on those thoughts.

"What's wrong lassy?"

Again, Alice wanted to punch the stupid monitor that supposedly was keeping track of her heart rate. Clearly this realm's medical equipment needed some upgrades considering her heart was jackhammering against her ribs at the newcomer's arrival.

_Papa_. Her Papa was back.

"N—nothing." Robin lied and Alice can easily picture her trying to dry her eyes on her sleeve to save her 'cool' only for more to follow given how upset she was.

"Margot." Rogers sighed only to come up short and change whatever he was going to say next to a puzzled "Where are your glasses love?"

Alice didn't know is she wanted so swoon or laugh more at the question while all her love could answer with was a dazed "Well…there um…"

Lucky for Robin, Lucy was there to help her. "She was sleeping in them _again,_ so I took them."

"Right yeah." Robin agrees while Alice gives a loud whine that sadly was all in her head when her archer gets up from the bed to greet the newcomer with a quick hug.

"Whatcha got their detective?" Lucy asks just as Alice picks up on the rustling of a paper bag being set down on a table close by.

Rogers lets out a guilty sigh before he answers. "Double banana split hold the banana." Or as anyone in their little circle of friends knew it _'the Tilly & or Margot extra bad day ice cream special' _Her Papa always the kindhearted soul no matter what realm they were in. "Sorry I didn't get you anything, Lucy. I didn't know you…."

"Don't sweat detective." Lucy waves off. "I can just talk Henry into taking me for ice cream later before we meet Mom after work."

Robin's low laughter warms Alice's heart to hear as her love settles in having drug one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs as close as she could to Alice's bedside before she takes a seat. "Sneaky kid real sneaky."

Going by the change in his breathing Alice was sure her Papa was rolling his eyes at the banter. "Or I could accompany you to the cafeteria and remedy my own miscalculation right now." He offers

It's only after the pair had gone that Alice tried again to get her girlfriend's attention to the fact she was, in fact, awake both from the curse and from her time resting up from her surgery to repair the damage her mother's would-be hitman inflicted.

"Still have a little while before the next shift change," Robin says conversationally making Alice's mission a little harder when she gets up. Possibly to tuck the offered ice cream away for later. The good thing about that was that Robin's back was still turned when Alice managed to drag her eyes open giving her time to appreciate her love's toned back all she wished.

"Oh, I am so going to have to talk with Aunt Regina about fixing this." Robin sighs as she once again tugs off Margot's glasses only to grudgingly put them back on again with a defeated huff a few seconds later. Also, a good thing Robin's hands had been empty when she finally did turn back to face the rest of the room considering anything she'd have been holding would have been on the floor the second her eyes found her long waited for blue.

Even with the needed crutch of Margot's glasses, Robin had to admit that her true love's smile never looked as beautiful as it did at this moment.


End file.
